Pages

Friday, 3 December 2010

Snow

Scotland is having the worst weather for November since the 1960s. Edinburgh is ankle deep in snow, which is very pretty but is causing some chaos. (More chaos than it needs perhaps in some areas, some people are questioning why our schools are closed when schools in Siberia, Finland and Alaska are all open as normal!).

These extreme cold weather conditions of course are causing some people to question climate change, as sceptics always will. The most obvious cause for extreme weather hitting the UK while global temperatures increase, would be the loss of the Gulf Stream. This is the current of warm water that comes up from the southern oceans and passes by the UK making our winters, at least up until two years ago, milder than we would otherwise experience given how far north we are. The Gulf Stream could be lost as Arctic seas become warmer. There is a good article in the Telegraph newspaper, that explains this and other reasons why extremely cold winters in the UK are compatible with overall global warming.

Lived in the mid alantic states all my life and I remember some doosey storms. Back in the seventies, they thought that we might soon have an ice age... Last year we had 3, 20+ inches ,snow storms , and that is really unsual for Va; although I always felt that we had 5 good years for skiing and then we would have 5 bad years. To me the weather is somewhat cylic and how are you going to stop India, Brazil.China and others from poluting

We had our coolest November and wettest last few months in years, but that is the LaNina effect (and thank goodness for it - we need the water)related to the oceans. Climate change skeptics love to cherry pick data.

sounds like you're enjoying a BIG snow. we're supposed to get some snow tomorrow, we'll see. i think climate change is happening all around because i notice changes in the weather here too. hope the animals fair well through the extreme temperatures. hope all is well.